Last spring we tried our hands at growing blue corn. It grew well...strong and tall...and we wound up harvesting about 15 ears from our tiny experimental patch. The thing about blue corn is that you don't eat it fresh, you dry it and then grind it up into a flour. We were thinking it might be something fun and different to grow, dry and grind our very own flour...
Well, almost 6 months later, this is as far as we've gotten.
Yeah...I know...it's not flour yet, but it will be someday. Someday we will grind these pretty little kernels up and make our very first homegrown flour that will then become yummy pancakes or tamales or tortillas. In the meantime, it really is gorgeous, isn't it?
Now that's just beautiful. Can I ask how you dry it, how long it takes, etc? Was at a favorite mexican restaurant a couple weeks ago and had blue corn enchiladas. So good and so pretty on the plate. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
ReplyDeleteWe waited until it was fully ripe and beautifully blue before picking it (longer than you you would wait for sweet corn). Then we put it in a hanging basket in our kitchen until this week, when Tool Lady shucked it. So, officially, I'm sure you don't have to wait that long ;-) Probably just until it's nice and dry!
Deletebeautiful!!
ReplyDeleteLovely! A few years ago we planted some Bloody Butcher corn. A dark red heirloom variety. When we ground it it turned out purple so we had purple cornbread. I thought it was pretty awesome! The children weren't so sure.
ReplyDeleteJudy
Ooohhhh...that sounds beautiful! If we ever have a more acreage, we just might have to grow a couple of varieties of corn :-)
DeleteSuper pretty colour - hope they taste as good as they look : )
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hope so, too!!!
DeleteVery beautiful!Will really make a nice home-made flour. The seeds are not readily available here in Australia.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think it will be yummy once we get it to that point! I love blue corn pancakes :-) Forgive my ignorance...Can I ask why you don't have the seeds in Australia?
DeleteWow, the blue corn looks beautiful, and congratulations on successfully growing it! I wonder if there is some reason why it can't be eaten fresh, or if it just tastes so awful that no one would want to?? That said, I think I'll pick up some blue cornmeal at our next trip to Whole Foods and make pancakes! Last summer I successfully grew baby corn in wine barrels out back in the parking area, and that made a decadent addition to all kinds of stuff, salads, sautes, pasta sauce, etc., but I'm about ready to give up on "adult" corn since I don't have sufficient space to grow enough of it for it to pollinate correctly. I'm going to try again next year. Also, I wonder if the weird, cool summers we've had for the past couple years is affecting it? The baby corn grew out back since the radiated heat from all the concrete offset the weird, chilly weather.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've never had it fresh and have only seen it cooked in posole aside from it being ground into flour. I just love corn! We're have so little space though that we have decided to devote a small patch each year to sweet corn and just stick with that. Planting it in blocks instead of rows helps when only planting a small amount and solar gain form buildings will definitely help in its growth :-)
DeleteI have a recipe for corn muffins that uses both yellow corn meal for one side of the muffin and blue corn meal for the other side. They are both tasty and beautiful, if you're interested?
ReplyDeleteJulie, YES! I'm absolutely interested! Those muffins sounds amazing! Thank you :-)
DeleteIt's gorgeous! We grew some dryland blue corn last year but because of the lack of rains, it didn't fare so well. We got enough for seed, though. I want to get to the point where we can grow enough blue corn for my daily atole fix...I probably eat atole about 300 days out of the year...which means we have a ways to go before producing that much!
ReplyDeleteAre you going to make nixtamal out of it for tortillas and tamales? Oh, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...
Thanks Pilar! We haven't decided what we'll use it for yet. I'm thinking we'll probably grind it and use it for pancakes and waffles. not sure we have enough to make nixtamal and have it be worth all the effort.
DeleteOn the lack-of-rain note...crazy winter we've had, ha? I'm super nervous for this growing season! I'd love to catch up with you soon! Maybe you'd be willing to share some of your knowledge regarding how to grow veggies while not depleting our water sources completely??? Let me know, I'd love to see you :-)